A letter issued by Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General, the Indian Council Of Medical Research reveals plan to launch India’s COVID-19 vaccine ‘COVAXIN’ developed in collaboration with Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech Limited (BBIL) by August 15.
It is the first indigenous vaccine being developed by India and is one of the top priority projects, and is being monitored at the topmost level of the Government.
‘The vaccine is derived from a strain of SARS-CoV-2 isolated by ICMR-National Institute of virology. Pune- ICMR and BBIL are jointly working for the preclinical as well as clinical development of this vaccine,’ the letter further read.
As of now, the medical body has asked 12 institutes fasten up their clinical trials of the vaccines, to enable the subject enrollments by the first week of July.
‘You have strictly advised to fast track all approvals related to the initiation of the clinical trial and ensure that the subject enrolment is initiated no later than July 7, 2020. And non-compliance will be viewed very seriously. Therefore, advised to treat this project on the highest priority and meet the given timelines without any lapse,’ the letter read.
According to the Indian Express, the other 12 institutes include:
King George Hospital VisakhapatnamUniversity of Health Science, RohtakAIIMS Ansari, NagpurAIIMS Phulwarisharif, PatnaJeevan Rekha Hospital, Belagavi, KarnatakaGillurkar Multispeciality Hospital, NagpurRana Hospital, Rail Vihar Medical College Road, GorakhpurSRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Tamil NaduNizam Institute of Medical Science. Pungutta, HyderabadDr E Venkata Rao, B 704, Palm Heights Shampur, OrissaPrakhar Hospital, Kanpur, Uttar PradeshDr Sagar Vivek Redkar, Consultant Physician, Mumbai
Last week, the pharmaceutical company had received approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct phase I and II human clinical trials.
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